Suit: Bosses skim lap dance cash from Scores girls

Pole dancers at the swank strippery Scores claim their bosses are dipping into their G-strings for a piece of the action.

And they're trying to get fellow workers to join them in a class-action lawsuit challenging Scores' habit of skimming 10 cents off every dollar they earn from a lap dance.

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The suit filed Wednesday in Manhattan Federal Court also accuses the publicly held company of paying subminimum wages, cheating employees out of overtime and refusing to pick up their uniform tab.

It was filed by former Scores bartender Siri Diaz of West New York, N.J., but seeks to represent more than 100 employees at Scores locales in New York, Chicago, Las Vegas and New Orleans.

Central to the strippers' claims is the club's use of "Diamond Dollars," or play money, bought with a credit card that customers can use to tip Scores employees.

The strippers say that when they redeem their "Diamond Dollars" at the end of a sweaty shift, the club keeps 10% of their hard-earned tips.

"The customers think they're tipping $20 when they're only tipping $18," said Justin Swartz, a lawyer with the Manhattan law firm Outten & Golden, the same one that's representing Courtney Prince, the former captain of the Rangers City Skaters, in her sex harassment lawsuit.

"It seems like a greedy money grab," Swartz added.

The lawyer says the scheme enables Scores' owners to tap into a vast revenue stream that should be off-limits to managers. Customers are charged a premium for using their credit card, he said.

"The company takes money off both ends of the transaction," Swartz said.

Only a few of the dancers at Scores West last night had an inkling about the suit.

"I had no idea it was happening," said a raven-haired beauty in her early 20s. "I thought they were taking out taxes and stuff like that," she said.

But a petite, blue-eyed blond nearby said bitterly, "It sucks. We don't make very much money as it is."